Language and Content: Passive: Present and Past Progressive

GRADES 3-5; 6-8; 9-12

LESSON PROCEDURE

Vocabulary

1. Introduce the lesson by telling the class a story about a recent visit you made to a farm. Show the Animal Babies Image.
2. Watch the Vocabulary movie using any additional visuals you have. Stop to ask questions, give examples, provide more context, and ask students to make connections to the words.
3. Project the picture side of Flash Words onto the board or interactive white board. Students label the words they know and then flip the pictures to check if they are correct.
4. Have partners do a Story Impression activity using designated new vocabulary words, or as many as possible. To remind students of the words, project the Flash Words feature onto the interactive white board, or list the words on the board.

Grammar

1. Watch the Grammar movie. Explain and practice the form and use of the passive present progressive. You can leave the structure on the board (am/is/are + being + past participle of the verb) and any question and answer prompt. For example:
   
   What is happening right now in this class? The class is being taught by the teacher.
   Ask pairs to write sentences about what is being done right now in the classroom or elsewhere in the school.
   For example: Snacks are being eaten.
   

   Books are being read in the library.
   
   For homework, students can answer the question: What do you usually do while dinner is being cooked?
2. For a warm-up activity, ask students what was happening last night while they were doing homework. Provide prompts if needed. For example:
   The TV was _________.
   Food was ___________.
   My brothers were ___________.
3. Use the Farm Action Image to practice the passive voice with progressive tenses. Project the image to the whole class and elicit sentences about what is happening right now in the picture. Answers may be oral or written. For example:
   The barn is being painted.
   Horses are being trained in the field.
   To practice the negative construction, provide sentences that incorrectly describe the Farm Action Image. The students correct your sentences. For example:
   
   Teacher: Eggs are being collected by Moby.
   Student: The eggs aren’t being collected by Moby. They are being collected by Uncle Joe.
   The activity may also be done in pairs. One student gives the incorrect statement and the other student corrects it.
4. When students are ready to practice the passive with past progressive, tell them that the actions in the Farm Action Image were all happening yesterday. Write the form on the board:
   was / were + being + past participle of the verb
   and the question prompt: What was happening on the farm yesterday at 4:00?
   Elicit answers in the passive past progressive. For example:
   While the pigs were being fed, the fence was being fixed.

Movie

1. Show the movie Work is Being Done (L3U1L4). During a second viewing, if you are projecting on an interactive white board, ask one student to underline or highlight the present progressive passive in the closed-caption field, and another student to highlight the past progressive passive.
2. Have students answer questions about the movie in pairs or small groups. For example:
   Why is the calf being fed by Ben and Moby?
   Why does the fence have to be fixed?
   Why is the barn being painted today?
   
   To differentiate, students can write their own questions.

Features

1. Watch Hear It, Say It. Students may listen and repeat sentences from the movie, or record their own voices and listen back.
2. Students do the remaining interactive features of the lesson: Play It, Warm Up, and You Can Do It.